Over the weekend, a double boom reverberated across New England, rattling homes and sending pets into a frenzy. The unexpected noise sparked a wave of questions on social media platforms.
“Did anyone else hear that boom?” users questioned.
“Did you feel that?” others echoed.
Initially, NASA confirmed that a meteor had caused the disturbance. By Monday, they provided even more intriguing details.
The meteor, described as weighing as much as an elephant and measuring five feet (1.52 meters) in diameter, was traveling at a staggering speed of 42,000 mph (67,593 kph) when it entered Earth’s atmosphere. The celestial object disintegrated miles above New England, releasing energy comparable to 230 tons of TNT, which explains the loud booms.
NASA revealed the jaw-dropping details in a social media post Monday along with other statistics.
The meteor was made up of natural material — not a satellite or space debris — and traveled through the atmosphere for about 26 miles (41.8 kilometers), according to NASA, before falling into Cape Cod Bay, which sits along southeastern Massachusetts.
The agency was quick to point out that meteors are very common, but typically don’t have as big of an audience as this one.
“They often occur over the ocean or unpopulated areas with no witnesses, or during the daytime, making them difficult to spot,” according to NASA.
The event prompted widespread speculation initially.
The rattling boom had some people in Massachusetts and Rhode Island thinking there had been an earthquake or that a tree had fallen. Others posted that their dogs were freaking out. At least one person posed the possibility of aliens.
A man in Peabody, Massachusetts, posted that it had been a windy day, so he thought a large tree had hit his house. When he came outside, he said, he found most of his neighbors in the street asking the same questions.
Several people filed reports with the U.S. Geological Survey, registering the shaking they felt with the National Earthquake Information Center, Steve Sobie, an agency spokesman, confirmed.
The agency opened an event page, based on the number of “Did you feel it?” reports it received on its website. But Sobie said there was no event registered on the agency’s seismographs. meaning the shaking was not due to an earthquake.
The American Meteor Society received dozens of reports from Delaware to Montreal with people either hearing the double boom, feeling the ground shake or seeing the fireball, its program monitor, Robert Lunsford, said.
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